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Japan to establish island military posts: report
by Staff Writers
Tokyo (AFP) May 19, 2014


China violates 'Declaration of Conduct': Philippine leader
Manila (AFP) May 19, 2014 - Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Monday accused China of violating the "Declaration of Conduct" it signed in 2002, after it allegedly began reclaiming land on a disputed reef in the South China Sea.

Manila last week publicly accused Beijing of large-scale reclamation activity at Johnson South Reef, which is also claimed by the Philippines. Filipino officials fear this could lead to China building its first airstrip in the disputed region.

"In my view... what they are doing now, this is all seemingly in violation of what we agreed in the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea," he told reporters.

He stressed that China, along with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed the declaration in 2002 in a bid to ease tensions over the South China Sea, but this agreement was not binding.

Aquino said the statement effectively called on all parties to refrain from building new structures in the disputed area until the conflict is settled.

China claims almost all of the resource-rich waters, parts of which are also claimed by ASEAN members, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam and non-member Taiwan.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying would not confirm Manila's claim over the Johnson South Reef activity, but asserted the outcrop was Chinese territory.

Aquino said the problem was that the Declaration was non-binding, adding that the incident showed the need for a binding "Code of Conduct that would stop these actions that have a potential of causing violence and unrest".

The dispute over the reef, which the Chinese navy seized from Vietnam in a deadly 1988 skirmish, is among a tangle of maritime rows in the sea involving the Asian superpower and its smaller and weaker neighbours.

The Philippines had asked a United Nations tribunal in March to declare what Manila said was China's claim to 70 percent of the sea as illegal.

The Philippines also filed a separate diplomatic protest against China's reclamation works on Johnson South Reef last month, but Beijing also rejected it on grounds the reef is part of Chinese territory.

In another area of the sea, China moved an oil rig into waters claimed by Hanoi, sparking a clash between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels earlier this month.

The dispute has triggered the worst anti-Chinese rioting in Vietnam in decades, targeting Chinese and other foreign-owned factories.

Japan is to establish new military outposts on remote islands, a report said Monday, as Tokyo looks to bolster its defence amid a territorial dispute with China.

Up to 350 troops each could be stationed on three islands in the far southwest, close to the Senkakus, which Beijing claims as its own under the name Diaoyus, the mass-selling Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

With the exception of the main Okinawa island, Japan's Ground Self-Defense Forces -- its army -- have no bases on the chain of islands that runs from the bottom of Kyushu to Taiwan. There are limited air force facilities in the area.

The lack of substantial military presence is a source of worry for some in Japan, who caution that it leaves Japan vulnerable to China's increasingly assertive stance.

Chinese ships have repeatedly moved into the Senkakus' territorial waters, since Tokyo nationalised some of them in September 2012, to confront Japanese vessels.

The islands lie around 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) southwest of Tokyo and around 200 kilometres from the north of Taiwan.

While most of the bickering has been between coastguards from both sides, observers say military ships are loitering over the horizon, with some warning of the risk of a confrontation.

Beijing has spent heavily on its military in recent years in a bid to develop a "blue water" navy that can project force far out into the Pacific.

This means getting through what it calls the "first island chain" including Japan's southwestern islands and the northern Philippines.

Tokyo is now planning to set up new outposts on three islands, including Amamioshima, some 150 kilometres (93 miles) south of the Senkakus, the Yomiuri said, citing unnamed senior defence ministry officials.

Deputy defence minister Ryota Takeda will visit Amamioshima this week to look at establishing a joint research project with the island, it said.

Two other candidate sites for the new posts include Miyako island and Ishigaki island, some 210 kilometres southwest and 170 kilometres south, respectively, of the disputed islets.

These units are to be in addition to a radar surveillance unit on Yonaguni, where a groundbreaking ceremony was held last month.

Bolstering the defence of Japan's southwestern islands "has an aspect of strengthening the Japan-US security alliance," a senior defence official told the Yomiuri.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said under a new defence programme, Japan had already decided to enhance the military presence in the southwest and had been conducting research.

"At the moment, however, we have not decided on specific, concrete locations such as those reported," he told a regular press conference.

The report came just two days after the Japanese and Chinese trade ministers held talks in the first high-level meeting since Japan's Prime Minister Abe visited the controversial Yasukuni war shrine in December.

China is also locked in separate territorial disputes with Southeast Asian neighbours, including Vietnam where the row has recently flared into deadly riots, and the Philippines.

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China has evacuated more than 3,000 of its nationals from Vietnam following deadly anti-Chinese violence, state media said Sunday, as Vietnamese authorities clamped down to prevent any further unrest threatening vital foreign investment. Xinhua news agency said the evacuees included 16 Chinese who were "critically injured" last week in unrest triggered by Beijing's deployment of an oil rig i ... read more


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